I’ve been back on the chalk for Easter. Due to a technical issues (see below) I’ve had a bit of a break! It’s been nice to just be at home with my parents for 5 nights. Last time I was here was Christmas and we all had Covid, so this trip has been 100x better! Hahah.

Whilst being here, I have ‘acquired’ the old family camera. A Pentax Optimo L60 from 2008. As a 2000’s era Lomo hipster and someone who still shoots film with their Olympus Pen EE, I’m in love.

The Pentax Optimo L60 shoots totally nostalgic late Myspace early Facebook looking photos. Its dynamic range is terrible, the colours are blown out, not a single edge is crisp. Every phone camera I’ve had in my pocket for the last 8-10 years has taken better photos than this Pentax.. but look how COOL these photos look

I just love how blown out they all are. The embedded date is also a wonderfully nostalgic touch. Soo good. I’m going to keep this camera in my coat/bag from now on and will be taking photos of friends at social events etc.

I’m also taking my parents old Nikon D3000 back to London with me tomorrow and will be retiring my dear old Nikon D40. A friend and a tool that I haven’t even picked up since before the pandemic. Looking forward to seeing what some of my expensive manual glass looks like on this upgraded (for me) camera. I’ll only be 14 years behind the times instead of 17!

That said, I do own a Sony ZV-1 but I only use it as a glorified. I should really learn how to use it.

Permanently Moved

Well … the cable I bought home with me to use with my mic is broken/temperamental. So my podcast is going to be a day late and out tomorrow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• A lot of chatting with GTP4 this week about work related things. Such a remarkable toy-box.
• Did a little bit more on worldrunning.guide up to 77 pages/13.6k words of collected writing on worlds and worldrunning.
• Full day of client work
• Lots of work trying to get ahead before the Easter break!

Terminal Access

Cool cat and Futures Designer Dré Labre has started a newsletter called Design Fiction Daily “A daily exercise in imagining harder about things that don’t exist.” It’s a fantastic daily dose of imagination and future speculation straight to your inbox. Go subscribe!

Dipping the Stacks

It Happened To Me: On Being Totally Unproductive at a Writing Residency ‹ Literary Hub

At night, when I retreated to my bedroom, I fought the silence by blasting music through my headphones

The End of the English Major | The New Yorker

Tara K. Menon, a junior professor who joined the English faculty in 2021, linked the shift to students arriving at college with a sense that the unenlightened past had nothing left to teach.

An Overlooked Detail in the Scott Adams and Dilbert Story

Once there seemed to be some consensus that the flyer should read “It’s okay to be white,” they started workshopping designs, suggesting different fonts, styles, and so on. Eventually, there seemed to be an agreement to go with a white background with all caps black text reading “It’s okay to be white.”

So, a Top Guardian Editor Was Married to the Founder of Mumsnet | by Jude Ellison S. Doyle | Feb, 2023 | Medium

Ian Katz of the Guardian (recently boycotted for its transphobia) and the BBC (routinely protested for its transphobia) was married to Justine Roberts of Mumsnet (a primary radicalizing hub for UK transphobia) for twenty-five years?

The Smell of Magic – The New York Times

According to Dr. Britta Ager, an American classicist and the author of “The Scent of Ancient Magic” (2022), fragrance has long been associated with witchcraft and supernatural powers

No fucking shit sherlock so glad we have an academic at hand to point this out!

Reading

Still working my through Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion by Harry Sword. This book is fucking amazing. It’s super nice having all the random facts, thoughts and tidbits about extreme drone music and spiritually I have collected in my brain over the last 20 years of my life put in one place. Sword is a fantastic.  It’s not so much a history of drone music but rather, as Sword writes, it “follows an outer stellar orbit of sounds underpinned by the drone”. A term used in chapter 3 ‘Blood Music’ has taken up space in my brain.

I read Show Your Work!: 10 Ways To Share Your Creativity And Get Discovered by Austin Kleon this week. Its a great book ad wish I had read it in my early 20’s. Now in my late 30’s and web 2 social media collapsing around me, the main take away is ‘blog more’.

I have 50 unread books on my kindle and 39 unread physical books. I think I’m done acquiring new books for a little while. Until my birthday in July perhaps. Lets see how many I can get through.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka

Because I’m reading that Monolithic Undertow book, I’ve been listening to music/albums that get mentioned that I’ve never come across before. One of these being the Sufi trance music of rural Morocco – Jajouka.

The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka was recorded by Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones in 1969, it was released after his death in 1971. WOW what a recording. This is ritual music and it’s absolutely incredible.

Remember Kids: